Why Is Strategic Thinking Important to the Success of Business?

Strategic thinking helps your business achieve its goals more rapidly. Success comes as a result of thinking about how you can proactively accomplish your objectives instead of just reacting to business conditions. A strategic mind-set also encourages you to determine the best use of resources at your disposal and how to align them with your action plan.

Strategic thinking helps you recognize and take advantage of windfall opportunities. If you're always thinking about what problems your company faces, you have little time left to plan for the future. Windfall opportunities are those that could result in rapid business growth, such as a chance to recruit away disgruntled workers from your competitor or buy out inventory from a competitor's liquidation sale.

Strategic thinking also encourages you to take a long view of your company's business model and operations. Your company could have persistent operational problems that prevent it from maximizing success, so you and your employees must think critically about the root causes of problems. For example, you could study overhead costs such as printing, looking for the core reasons why your business wastes paper and toner. Then you can revise your policies and procedures so printing is no longer a drain on your overhead budget.

Employees also benefit from the strategic mind-set of a small-business owner. A business strategy should clearly explain to employees what roles they play in reaching company goals. Some strategic plans are short term, outlining how your company will achieve an end goal in a few months' time. Other plans, such as your strategic plan, explain how your company will realize long-term goals over five or 10 years.

If you're planning ahead and addressing present business conditions simultaneously, you can choose appropriate actions when the economy shows early signs of trouble. Plan for how your business will succeed in tougher times. If consumer demand is decreasing or supply costs are rising, you can begin cutting costs in your overhead budget, ensuring that your overhead will not cripple you when the market declines. Without a deliberate strategy, your business decisions will be reactive instead of proactive.